An organization, for which innovation is its lifeblood, needs to have high talent desnity so that
Excerpts from this book -
“But when one employee abuses our trust, deal with the individual case and double your committment to continue transparency with the others. Do not punish the majority for the poor behaviour of a few.” - I believe this holds true for any administration be it of a company, an NGO or even a nation state.
“Speak plainly, without trying to make bad situations seem good, nd your employee will learn you tell the truth.” - Setting example is the first step to ensure your team mates behave as you expect them to.
“Self disclosure builds trust, seeking help boosts learning, admitting mistakes fosters forgiveness and broadcast failure encourages your people to act courageously.” - To add to this - “everyone makes mistake, what matters is what they do after it.” from a training video at Microsoft.
“Bruk concluded that honesty about mistakes is good for relationships, health and job performance. On the other hand there is also research showing that if somebody is already viewed as ineffective, they only deepen that opinion by highlighting their mistakes.” It’s good to admit to honest mistakes, but if you are making one too many then you need to reflect.
The pratfall effect is the tendency for someone’s appeal to increase or decrease after making a mistake, depending on their perceived ability to perform well in general.
Good decisions require -
When a bet fails manager must be careful to express interest in the takeaways but condemnation,
If you make a bet and it fails, it’s important to speak openly and freely about what happened.
At your workplace do not strive to create a family, instead strive to create a world-class sports team where every player knows the ins and outs of their comrades’ play but if a player is not performing up to expectations then they can be replaced without hurting their morale or rest of the team’s.
When you remove a player from your team, let other people know why exactly they were let go. Only withhold the details that pertain to the personal life of the person who was let go of.
“In white water kayaking they teach yout o look at the clear water next to the dangerous hole you want to avoid. Experts have found that if you stare at what you are desperate to avoid, you are actually more likely to peddle into it.”
Keeper test - ask your boss “if I were thinking of leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind”. The answer to this question will gie you important insights and signals about your work.
Lead with context - tell people what needs to happen and then let them figure out how to make it happen. You should hire talented people so that they can make the decisions themselves without you having to approve or watch all their decisions.
Lead with control - tell people what they need to do so that there is very little variation in the output of the work.
To choose between leading with context and leading with control, answer the following -
Note that loose coupleing, i.e. point 3 above, only works when the manager and the team are in lockstep agreement on the final goal. That is they strongly share the right context.
Alignment is not a tree, but a pyramid. Though information, i.e. contexts must flow from top to bottom, the decison making authority should be inclined towards a bottom up approach. That is let the person who is hired for the job make decisions within the context their manager has set and not ask the manager to take decisions based on the infomration their team has given them.
All countries are different. What works in one country will not work in other. Be aware of this and shift your methods accordingly with the aim to ensure that the end results are always what you want them to be. Eg. if feedback is a taboo in one country but the company thrives on feedback then make giving feedback a part of the job. Tell employees to ask questions, seek forgiveness for misunderstnading and not hesitate to act because it might upset someone, when acting in an international setting.
Consistency and repeatability are more likely to squash fresh thinking than to bring you company profit. A lot of little mistakes while sometimes painful, help the organization learn quickly and are a critical part of innovation cycle.
Feedback should follow the 4A model - While giving feedback 1. Aim to assist the recipient with your feeadback and not just bring them down. Do this by giving 2. Actionable feedback that can allow them to understand what behavior needs to change. Whereas while receiving feedback 3. Appreciate the person giving feedback as this act means that they care for you and it shows them that you are happy to hear it. Say thank you to all the feedback you receive and then make decision on your own if you want to 4. Accept or Reject the feedback.
Keep in touch with recruiters to know what is the market willing to pay for your skills. Ensure your team is receiving the top of the market value. All hikes and compensation should be based on the top of market value of the employee and their skills.